Sumaiya Siddique, MBR Team

Checkbox is a B2B “Freecommerce” platform that is creating online income opportunities for the people of Bangladesh through social commerce.

MBR: Checkbox is a top-rated e-commerce platform among entrepreneurs. Please tell us how the idea of checkbox was initiated. What was the motivation behind it?

Checkbox: We came up with the idea for Checkbox back in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic. We observed a growing need among the general population of Bangladesh for alternate income sources due to the pandemic. It became apparent to us that social commerce (online business through Facebook and Instagram) can be an excellent way for people to earn extra money from their homes.

However, starting an online business can be a daunting task for a newbie who doesn’t have any previous experience or knowledge regarding social commerce. Therefore, most people find it difficult to generate a sustainable side income by selling products online. In addition to that, people without prior experience in business are more riskaverse and find the notion of investing in large quantities of inventory to sell them online quite overwhelming.

Therefore, we designed the model of Checkbox in such a way that allows people to start and run an online business without any prior business experience and without any investment. All they need is a little creativity and some free time.

At present, we are helping thousands of new online entrepreneurs to earn extra income every month from the comfort of their homes. We are also noticing that Checkbox has opened up a new horizon for a lot of women who do not have the luxury to go out for work, such as housewives and women in rural areas. It makes us feel extremely proud when we see that a woman is earning some extra money through the support of Checkbox by running an online business in between her household chores, which she didn’t even think was possible before.

MBR: Please tell us the how you enable entrepreneurs to flourish their businesses?

Checkbox: We are building Checkbox to become a comprehensive ecosystem where entrepreneurs can find a complete solution for starting and growing their online businesses, regardless of their experience or socio-economic background.

By joining the Checkbox platform, a user (we call them resellers) gets instant access to thousands of products to sell online from various categories. The user can then download all the information related to the products (along with product images and videos) from the platform and resell them on their online stores (i.e. Facebook shops or websites) without purchasing the items. Every item is listed at a wholesale rate on the Checkbox platform so that the reseller can sell the product at a profit. Not only that, after the reseller generates any order from his/her online shop, Checkbox delivers the product directly to the end-consumer on behalf of the reseller. This means that the reseller can run his/her business in a totally hands-off manner. All the operational and logistical hassles are taken care of by the Checkbox team.

By creating a reselling model (also known as the Dropship model globally), we have eliminated the need for the entrepreneurs to invest any money for purchasing inventory, thus taking away any risks that may jeopardize their financial health. We are also taking away all the operational hassle related to order fulfilment and delivery from the entrepreneur. Hence, it is extremely hassle-free for the entrepreneur, and virtually anybody can do this by joining the Checkbox platform.

We also have regular training programs for new resellers, where we share guidelines, sales tips, and social media marketing strategies. We provide social media marketing services for our resellers who are unable to do it on their own. We have one-on-one professional counselling for new resellers. We are also in the process of providing a professional studio facility for the resellers where they can make live videos to sell products online without investing a huge sum of money.

In addition to that, we have also built a communitybased knowledge sharing system through our Facebook group where experienced sellers can guide new sellers to grow their online businesses.

MBR: Checkbox is a reputed e-commerce site. Can you elaborate the factors that helped you to overcome the hurdles you faced throughout the journey?

Checkbox: Creating and maintaining a steady supply chain was the biggest hurdle for us in the early days. It was virtually impossible for us to keep inventory for so many products from so many different categories. But at the same time, we had to offer a wide range of products on our website so that our resellers could have enough varieties to offer on their online shops. Then again, we didn’t want to switch to a marketplace model early on because it would become extremely difficult to maintain the quality and timeliness of delivery in a marketplace model, which will hamper our resellers’ businesses. It was not easy to create a supply chain model where we could have sufficient control over product quality, packaging, and delivery, but at the same time, not burdening ourselves with a high volume of inventory.

In order to overcome this challenge, we had to carefully select our suppliers and build collaborative partnerships with them. That proved to be significantly difficult in the beginning when our order volume was low. In Bangladesh, most wholesalers and importers have a tendency to neglect online companies due to a lack of knowledge and vision. A lot of early suppliers didn’t want to take us seriously. We had to go the extra mile to prove our worth to them before we could bring them on board.

Now, thanks to the endless efforts of our excellent sourcing team, we have a pool of dedicated suppliers who are enthusiastic about providing us sufficient support to scale our business, and the number of suppliers is increasing every week.

MBR: Checkbox is going through a very transitory phase. What are the strategies that will help to unlock new opportunities?

Checkbox: During our first year, we took our time to gain an in-depth understanding of the market and the major pain points of online sellers and resellers. We have designed our platform and our services to address all of those issues. There is really no other platform in Bangladesh that has a comprehensive solution to all the problems faced by a new or even a seasoned online reseller.

2022 is going to be a very important year for us. We have created a solid product sourcing pipeline. Our 25 of 35 SOP has been refined over months of trial and error. And we have cracked the operational and logistical challenges. Now it is only a matter of shifting the gears

MBR: Your company is gradually expanding its business. What are the key milestones you want to achieve in the years to come?

Checkbox: Our vision is to create a social commerce revolution in Bangladesh. We want social commerce to become a reliable and practical source of generating substantial income for people. We believe that by establishing an online business as a means to generate steady monthly income, we can contribute directly in solving the unemployment problem of Bangladesh.

According to the Planning Commission Report (GED), 2019, there are around 26 Million young graduates in Bangladesh who are either unemployed or under-employed. This huge pool of educated youth can become self-sufficient through social commerce if proper infrastructure, training facility.and support is provided. What’s interesting is that this group is already using different social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram on a daily basis. So it should not be difficult to encourage and guide them to use these platforms for productive work, such as social commerce. Checkbox is doing exactly that.

A 2021 statistics show that there are 40 Million Facebook users in Bangladesh, and the number is growing rapidly. However, there are only around 50,000 Facebook shops that are actively operating in Bangladesh (according to e-CAB; Daily Star, 2019). This figure indicates that there is a huge untapped potential for social commerce in Bangladesh. Our goal is to unleash that potential by working as a catalyst in the social commerce sector.

By 2025, we plan to create 1 Million new online entrepreneurs through our ecosystem and make them financially independent by providing the necessary support and training.